- Slovenians reject assisted-dying law in national referendum
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Slovenians on Sunday voted to suspend a new law to legalise assisted dying in a referendum held after critics mounted a campaign against the legislation. Around 53 percent of voters had rejected the law, while 47 percent voted in favour, meaning its implementation will be suspended for at least one year. Slovenia’s parliament had approved a law in July allowing assisted dying after a 2024 referendum supported it. But the new vote was called after a civil group, backed by the Catholic Church and the conservative parliamentary opposition, gathered 46,000 signatures in favour of a repeat, exceeding the 40,000 required.” (11/23/25)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20251123-slovenia-assisted-dying-law-referendum
- Canada: Carney Says Regime Will Resume US Trade Talks “When Appropriate”
Source: US News & World Report
“Canada will resume trade discussions with the United States ‘when it’s appropriate,’ Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Sunday, noting he did not have a pressing issue to address with President Donald Trump. Trump last month suspended the talks over an anti-tariff advertisement issued by Ontario’s provincial government. ‘We are very busy with the future of Canada, and with new partnerships. There will be conversations with the president, probably in the next two weeks,’ Carney told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg. ‘We will re-engage when it’s appropriate.'” (11/23/25)
- Cryptographers cancel election results after losing decryption key
Source: Ars Technica
“One of the world’s premier security organizations has canceled the results of its annual leadership election after an official lost an encryption key needed to unlock results stored in a verifiable and privacy-preserving voting system. The International Association of Cryptologic Research (IACR) said Friday that the votes were submitted and tallied using Helios, an open source voting system that uses peer-reviewed cryptography to cast and count votes in a verifiable, confidential, and privacy-preserving way. … Per the association’s bylaws, three members of the election committee act as independent trustees. To prevent two of them from colluding to cook the results, each trustee holds a third of the cryptographic key material needed to decrypt results. ‘Unfortunately, one of the three trustees has irretrievably lost their private key, an honest but unfortunate human mistake, and therefore cannot compute their decryption share,’ the IACR said.” (11/21/25)
- India: Trade unions oppose new labour codes, call for demonstrations
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Ten large Indian trade unions have condemned the government’s rollout on Friday of new labour codes, the biggest such overhaul in decades, as a ‘deceptive fraud’ against workers. The unions, aligned with parties opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanded in a statement late on Friday that the laws be withdrawn before nationwide protests they plan to hold on Wednesday. … Modi’s government implemented the four labour codes, approved by parliament five years ago, as it seeks to simplify work rules, some dating to British colonial rule, and liberalise conditions for investment. It says the changes improve worker protections. While the new rules offer social security and minimum-wage benefits, they also allow companies to hire and fire workers more easily.” (11/22/25)
- FL: Homeowner shoots, kills intruder
Source: WPLG 10 News
“A man was shot and killed Saturday evening after deputies say he and three others tried to force their way into a southwest Miami-Dade home. … A preliminary investigation found that four unidentified individuals arrived at the home and attempted to enter by force. The homeowner, who was inside at the time, fired at the group, striking one of the subjects in the upper body, deputies said. … The remaining three individuals fled the scene in an unknown direction.” (11/22/25)
- France: AP mapping shows poorest regions backing Le Pen’s party as support for Macron wanes
Source: SFGate
“The date was May 7, 2017. Addressing cheering supporters, the newly elected leader of France, Emmanuel Macron, made a promise that now, in his waning 18 months as president, lies in tatters. The rival that Macron defeated that day, Marine Le Pen, had secured 10,638,475 votes. They were nowhere near enough for the far-right leader to win. But they were too numerous for Macron to ignore, a best-ever watershed at the ballot box for Le Pen’s once-ostracized National Front party that she inherited from her Holocaust-denying father. Gazing out over a sea of French flags, Macron acknowledged ‘anger’ and ‘distress’ that he said motivated Le Pen voters. He pledged to do everything to win them over, ‘so they no longer have any reason to vote for the extremes.’ But since then, Le Pen’s us-against-them nativist politics targeting immigrants, Muslims and the European Union have made millions more converts.” (11/23/25)
- Former TV anchor heads to same prison as Ghislaine Maxwell after $63 million COVID fraud conviction
Source: Fox News
“A former TV anchor-turned entrepreneur convicted of stealing millions of dollars in a COVID-era fraud scheme will spend the next decade behind bars at the same Texas prison camp as infamous sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Earlier this year, a federal grand jury found Stephanie Hockridge, 42, guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Friday, Hockridge was sentenced to 10 years in lockup at a Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, the New York Post reported. She was also ordered to pay over $63 million in restitution. Hockridge was convicted ‘in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $63 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act’, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Hockridge co-founded lender service provider Blueacorn in April 2020, ostensibly to help small businesses and individuals secure PPP loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, the DOJ said.” (11/23/25)
- ND: Abortion illegal again after court reverses a judge’s earlier decision
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Abortion is again illegal in North Dakota after the state’s Supreme Court on Friday couldn’t muster the required majority to uphold a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s ban last year. The law makes it a felony crime for anyone to perform an abortion, though it specifically protects patients from prosecution. Doctors could be prosecuted and penalized by as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Three justices agreed that the ban is unconstitutionally vague under the state constitution. The other two justices said the law is not unconstitutional. The state constitution requires at least four of the five justices to agree for a law to be found unconstitutional, a high bar.” (11/21/25)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/21/abortion-north-dakota/
- Two socialists walk into the White House
Source: Washington Post
by the editorial board“What are a few deportation threats among friends? President Donald Trump has called Zohran Mamdani a ‘100% Communist lunatic’ who ‘needs to be DEPORTED.’ Mamdani called the president a ‘despot,’ promising to ‘Trump-proof’ New York. Yet they couldn’t have been chummier in their Oval Office meeting on Friday. What’s happening here? Trump loves populists and winners, and Mamdani is both. … This surreal scene is no bad thing for voters who have been told that the other side is the mortal enemy, though they might wonder how sincere each side was in their election insults. In reality, Mamdani and Trump have some shared interests, and it’s not just about building more apartments and tackling inflation. Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line.” (11/21/25)
- Taiwan: Takaichi Strikes a Long-Needed Blow Against “Strategic Ambiguity”
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Taiwan is not now, and never has been, part of the People’s Republic of China. … But whenever any politician on the world stage publicly mentions, or even alludes to, that fact, Chinese politicians rattle their sabers militarily while threatening, ‘diplomatically,’ to throw themselves on the floor and hold their breath until they turn blue. To placate Beijing, western regimes have generally adopted policies of ‘strategic ambiguity.’ They conduct friendly relations with Taiwan while not ‘recognizing’ its status as independent, and provide Taiwan with military assistance of various kinds while very carefully NOT openly saying they’d help it defend itself against invasion. ‘Strategic ambiguity’ is the worst of two worlds when it comes to foreign policy.” (11/23/25)
- The Democratic Party Is Offering a False Choice Between Socialism and Technocracy
Source: Reason
by Jacob R Swartz“The unity that once held the Democratic Party together has given way to ideological meandering, oscillating between ‘woke’ moralistic left-wing populism and technocratic managerialism. These two impulses now define its fractured identity: the former emerging from the Occupy movement and the momentum of Bernie Sanders'[s] presidential campaigns, the latter from the evolution of the Clinton-era ‘New Democrat’ consensus. The 2025 elections crystallized the divide through two major victories — socialist outsider Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who’s more in line with the neoliberal wing. Each has been called the party’s ‘future,’ though their wins more clearly reveal how ideologically hollow the party’s core has become.” (11/23/25)
- MAGA’s $300 million heist
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko“In the 15 years between 2009 and 2024, more than 500 people in Texas were exonerated after being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. … The state paid them just under $156 million …. Last year, New York City paid out $205 million to settle 956 lawsuits alleging police abuse. … I bring up these figures because, according to multiple reports, Donald Trump is about to order the government to pay him ‘damages’ for the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago mansion and for special prosecutor Jack Smith’s two investigations of him …. He’s going to pay himself $230 million. So Trump — who didn’t spend a minute behind bars — [is] about to swindle about 50 percent more than the total amount of money paid to the 97 innocent people who were incarcerated for more than 1,200 years in Texas. Or about 12 percent more than the total paid last year to 957 victims of police brutality in New York City.” (11/21/25)
- Headless politics
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato“Although anarchism is usually treated as an outlier political philosophy, structurally it describes the conditions under which most human groups have actually governed themselves before the formation of the state. Many human communities still of course live beyond the reaches of the murdering, pathological state. … Whatever we think of the way these societies are structured and governed, it is clear that there are elements of intentional power-preemption, centrifugal mechanisms for maintaining a deliberately headless politics.” (11/22/25)
- Why We Must Replace the Global Economic System Built by the 1%
Source: Inequality.org
by Jenny Ricks & Deepak Xavier“This year’s G20 Leaders Summit is taking place in Johannesburg, a short distance from Constitution Hill, a former prison complex that once held Nelson Mandela and other South African democracy fighters. As the world’s most powerful leaders meet behind closed doors, this former apartheid prison turned museum will publicly write another page in the history of global economic emancipation. Movements, workers, activists, thinkers, creatives, artists, and communities from across South Africa, Africa, Asia, and Latin America are gathering for a three-day People’s Summit for Economic Justice — a counter to the G20 — to build the power of the 99 percent.” (11/22/25)
- The Neo-Right’s Multi-Front Revolt Against America
Source: The UnPopulist
by William Galston“After moderate Republican candidates lost twice to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton became the favorite to succeed him, the revolt that had begun with the Tea Party during the Great Recession shattered the GOP’s “let us continue as usual” faction and led to Donald Trump’s improbable nomination as the Republican standard-bearer. His longstanding opposition to free trade, international commitments, and mass immigration soon came to dominate a radically changed party. Nobody could accuse Trump of having a well-developed conservative philosophy, but his iconoclastic impulses opened the door to restless intellectuals vying to systematize his impulses into a New Right.” (11/23/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-neo-rights-multi-front-revolt
- Wendell Berry’s Epilogue
Source: Law & Liberty
by Nadya Williams“Wendell Berry’s Port William novels invite reflection on whether the meek might not, after all, inherit the Earth.” (11/21/25)
- Ukraine’s fronts are not only in the war
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Each approaching winter since 2022, besieged Ukrainians have braced for more Russian attacks on the energy installations they rely on to survive the harsh cold of the Eurasian steppe. This year, they are confronting two additional jolts: Anti-corruption agencies have revealed high-level graft, with the equivalent of $100 million siphoned off from funds intended to defend this very same energy infrastructure. And many Ukrainians are discomfited by reports of a U.S.-Russia ‘peace plan’ – negotiated without Ukraine’s involvement. Some Ukrainian officials believe the timing is designed by the United States to use the corruption crisis to pressure the president into concessions.” (11/21/25)
- Against Utopianism
Source: Quillette
by Dustin N Sharp“Every generation rediscovers the dream of purity, and every generation pays for it. The forms change, but the rhythm remains the same. We’re currently watching a small version of that drama unfold again, this time in the theatre of New York City politics. Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor might seem like an old story of a political party’s young Turks taking on the old guard. But it is also possible to see a mood shift as that party shifts away from incrementalism and sets its sights on more radical, transformational change. Yes, the old machine could be venal and often shabby, but at least there was an occasional pragmatism to it. The new tone is all religious big-tent revival, the old hymns replaced by slogans of justice and liberation — the saviours of the republic are set to unseat capitalism and usher in the age of the redeemed.” (11/23/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/11/23/against-utopianism-dsa-zohran-mamdani/
- Deranged Democrats’ latest coup attempt seeks military mutiny
Source: Fox News
by Mike Davis“Congressional Democrats are openly encouraging anarchy with a new video calling on military and intelligence officials to disobey what they claim are unlawful orders from President Trump. All government officials take an oath to uphold the law, including the United States Constitution and all statutes. There are some examples where orders are plainly unlawful, and a defense of ‘I was just following orders’ is unavailing. An infamous case involved Lt. William Calley, who led the horrific My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. Democrats’ call here, however, is staggeringly dangerous and invites a coup. But exactly which orders do Democrats believe are unlawful? Are ICE raids part of these supposedly unlawful orders? The Supreme Court recently stayed an order by leftist Judge Maame Ewusi Mensah Frimpong in Los Angeles that had curtailed such raids.” (11/21/25)
- The Question Of Decency
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan“Democracy requires decency because it requires mutual respect: to defend others even as we disagree with them, to accept decisions others have made and elections we have lost, to distinguish between robust rhetoric and dehumanizing cruelty, to accept objective truth when it proves us wrong, to maintain a baseline of civility, to accept that we are all in this together. … This is why I reject the shallow accusation that I have ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’ It’s too glib, too dismissive. Yes, some have gone overboard in opposing this president …. But the core impulse to reject Trump outright, to see him as uniquely hideous in American political history — as a national, collective disgrace — remains a vitally important one. Because Donald Trump is the most indecent man, by far, to ever hold the presidency.” (11/21/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-question-of-decency-bc2
- You Don’t Hate The Mass Media Enough
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“There was another IDF massacre in Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing dozens of Palestinians. Israel as usual claimed it was responding to a ceasefire violation by Hamas, but of course there’s absolutely no evidence for this to be found. AP reports that according to the IDF the strikes were launched after a Hamas fighter ‘shot at troops in southern Gaza’, but that ‘no soldiers were hurt’ in this alleged attack. Not so much as a scratch. So I guess we’re just expected to take Israel’s word for it. Now check out these western media headlines about the massacre and notice the disgusting spin they are placing on the narrative to normalize the continued slaughter of Palestinians.” (11/23/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/11/23/you-dont-hate-the-mass-media-enough/
- Wag the Dog in Venezuela
Source: CounterPunch
by Mel Gurtov“Analysis of why countries go to war sometimes argues that leaders are motivated by problems at home. They attack another country to divert attention from an economic crisis, an unlawful act, or — as in the Robert De Niro movie, Wag the Dog — a sex scandal. … as Pres. Trump considers what to do with his Caribbean armada and Venezuela’s ‘narco-terrorist’ leader, Nicolas Maduro, we may be witness to another wag-the-dog event: US military pressure on Venezuela that could lead to a direct attack if Maduro doesn’t step down. The case for Trump to be highly motivated to act out of self-interest is strong.” (11/21/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/21/wag-the-dog-in-venezuela/
- Of Speeches and Statecraft
Source: The Realist Review
by James W Carden“The speeches of John Fitzgerald Kennedy comprise a core component of the Kennedy lore. His inaugural address, with its demand to ‘ask not,’ is perhaps the best known of any presidential inaugural address—ranking alongside Lincoln’s second and FDR’s first. And while the artistry of Kennedy’s inaugural is not in question, the speech has overshadowed more thoughtful efforts by the 35th President to lay out his vision for a more peaceful world. Only eight months into his presidency, Kennedy showed that he was breaking with the Cold War consensus of the prior 15 years. That autumn, in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Kennedy unveiled his program for a ‘general and complete disarmament.'” (11/22/25)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/of-speeches-and-statecraft
- Losing access — and losing hope. Congress must protect non-intoxicating hemp
Source: The Hill
by Nicole Hemmenway“I am one of the millions of Americans who live with chronic pain — it burns, shoots, and sears through my body every single day. I have spent decades trying nearly every treatment modern medicine offers, but one of the few options that has worked for me — and millions of other Americans — has been hemp products. They are non-intoxicating, rigorously tested, and they enable me to function. They help me walk, sleep, show up for my family and lead an organization. Simply live. But now, because of a secretive, backroom deal, Congress is taking them away for no apparent reason. … The bill to reopen the government caps intoxicating THC content in any hemp product at 0.4 milligrams per container — an arbitrary limit that will most likely end the hemp industry. This provision won’t just eliminate hemp products — it will eliminate hope for millions.” (11/22/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5617536-chronic-pain-hemp-congress/
- Ukraine “peace plan” distracts from the real issue: Why Russia’s desperate to keep fighting
Source: New York Post
by Andrew Chakhoyan“Say what you will about President Trump’s methods, but his wish to end Russia’s war is genuine. The problem is Moscow doesn’t want peace in Ukraine, it wants Ukraine in pieces. A panicking Vladimir Putin dispatched Kirill Dmitriev with a ‘peace plan’ so absurd it would shame a mid-level propagandist. Every time the White House offers an olive branch, the Kremlin torches it and commits more heinous war crimes. Washington floated a leaders’ summit in October, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wiped his shoes with it, demanding Ukraine stop resisting and the West ignore kidnapped kids and beheaded prisoners. Well, Trump pulled the plug on Budapest, signaling he might punish the Kremlin, and a panicking Vladimir Putin dispatched Kirill Dmitriev with a ‘peace plan’ so absurd it would shame a mid-level propagandist.” (11/22/25)
- Lindsey Graham’s Metadata Meltdown
Source: International Guild of Professional Anarchists
by Alexander Snitker“In the never-ending slapstick of the American empire, few characters commit harder to the bit than Senator Lindsey Graham. For decades, the South Carolina warhawk has sold you the surveillance state like it was freedom’s best friend, a little ‘necessary sacrifice’ so Daddy Government can keep you safe. Now that the same machinery has scraped his phone records, he’s shrieking about tyranny, separation of powers, and Watergate-level scandal, clutching the Constitution like a prop he just found backstage. What changed? Nothing about the system. Only the target.” (11/21/25)
https://alexandersnitker.substack.com/p/lindsey-grahams-metadata-meltdown
- Stay “Insubordinate”
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“It’s a good thing to be if you’re a journalist.” (11/21/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-reporters-insubordinate-saudi-corruption-khashoggi/
- Enemy Within: The Greatest Danger to Liberty
Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin“‘Tyranny can now enter our country.’ Benjamin Rush dropped that warning in 1778 at the height of the War for Independence. But he wasn’t talking about Redcoats. Recognizing the nature of power and humanity, he was giving us a timeless warning about ‘ourselves’ and our own ‘great men.’ The Founders knew the score. History is littered with power-hungry rulers who use deception. They stage false flags. They manufacture crises or exploit real ones. The worst of them pretend to love liberty just to destroy it. In the end, it all leads to tyranny, and the greatest threat is from within.” (11/21/25)
https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/11/21/enemy-within-the-greatest-danger-to-liberty/
- Eugene V. Debs, Defender of American Liberty
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey C Isaac“On November 22, 1895, Eugene V. Debs was released from Woodstock Jail, where he had been imprisoned for six months for his leadership of the 1894 Pullman strike. Later that day, before a large crowd of supporters at Battery D in Chicago, he spoke on the topic of ‘Liberty’. Debs was a great orator, and ‘Liberty’ is a brilliant speech, powerfully evoking both ‘the spirit of liberty’ as heralded by the Declaration of Independence, and the promise of a freedom yet to be redeemed by American workers in thrall to plutocratic government. As Nick Salvatore noted in his classic biography, Eugene V. Debs, Citizen and Socialist, this speech marked an important moment in the evolution of Debs from a radically republican labor activist to the country’s leading socialist.” (11/22/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/eugene-v-debs-speech-on-liberty
- The US National-Security State’s Assassination of JFK
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Tomorrow, November 22, marks the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. national-security establishment’s assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Yes, I know, there are still Americans who buy into the official ‘conspiracy-theory’ line and the official lone-nut theory of the assassination, but I most definitely am not one of them. For me, there is no doubt whatsoever that this was a regime-change operation based on protecting ‘national security’ from a president whose policies, they were convinced, posed a grave threat to ‘national security.'” (11/21/25)
https://www.fff.org/2025/11/21/the-u-s-national-security-states-assassination-of-jfk/
- Unattended Baggage, episode 318
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Maybe we could all use some ‘Quiet Time.'” (11/22/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-318-maybe-we-could-all-use
- How to Fix It with John Avlon, 11/23/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Leaders Without Character Break Democracies (w/ Ryan Holiday).” (11/23/25)
- The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 11/21/25
Source: The Weekly Dish
“Mark Halperin On Covering Presidents.” (11/21/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/mark-halperin-on-covering-presidents
- Quillette Podcast, 11/23/25
Source: Quillette
“Jesse Brown’s Rude Awakening.” (11/23/25)
https://quillette.com/2025/11/23/podcast-313-jesse-browns-rude-awakening/
- Half the Answer, episode 50
Source: Liberal Currents
“Leaving Children Behind: Education Policy from Bush to Trump.” (11/21/25)
- The Focus Group, 11/22/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Will Epstein Be the Line for Republicans? (w/ Will Sommer & Sen. Elissa Slotkin).” (11/22/25)
- The Good Fight, 11/22/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“The Good Fight Club: A Warm Welcome for MBS, the Future of MAGA, and Democrat Infighting.” (11/22/25)
- Barry Eisler on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Barry Eisler on the CIA, Venezuela and Using Novels to Wake People Up.” (11/21/25)
- Poverty DEBATE: Matt Bruenig vs. Bryan Caplan
Source: Econboi
“Socialist researcher & labor lawyer Matt Bruenig takes on libertarian economist Bryan Caplan in a debate about what to do about poverty.” (11/21/25)
- Ron Paul Liberty Liberty Report, 11/21/25
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Liberty Report
“AI Spending: The Biggest Bubble Yet?” (11/21/25)
https://rumble.com/v721s7y-ai-spending-the-biggest-bubble-yet.html